Get your favourite seafood cut, cleaned, weighed, packed and delivered to your doorsteps by Fishchain within 90 minutes. Launched as a social venture in Bengaluru on March 8 this year, Fishchain sources fish directly from the fishing communities along the East and West coasts of India and brings it to the customer’s doorstep. The entire process including sourcing and supply is controlled and monitored by us, says Ray Nathan, CEO and co-founder. You can place the order on Bigbasket, an online grocery store, and get about 25 different varieties of seafood from sardines and lobsters to crabs delivered to your house. While I was touring the coastal region of South India, I realized that the seafood industry in India is unorganized. There are lot of transactions through intermediaries. As a social and for profit venture, we want to maximize impact on the fishing community by sourcing directly from them. Pay Directly to the Fisherman By cutting industry middlemen out, the start-up also aims to bring in transparent and fair prices to consumers and fair wages to the fishermen. We have introduced cashless card system to make instant payment to our fishermen,” says Ray. “Also, we tied up with MS Swaminathan Research Foundation which works for poor communities in the villages and also women in the fishing community. So, these women work as Fish Chain Representatives (FCR) and are in-charge of the logistics of the fish. They go to the pre-designated areas and get the supply ensuring its quality before transporting to our centers. There are about 100 FCRs from across 30 fishing villages working for us. The centre is in Banaswadi. Naveen Chandar, COO and co-founder says, Fish arrives in the morning and the staff cut, clean, weigh and pack a range of seafood into hygienic, odour-free packs. Prices range between `130 a kg and `1,300 a kg. The package comes with a QR code, which when scanned, lets costumers trace where and when the fish was caught. Sixty per cent of our business comes in on weekends. Major chunk of orders are from the professionals in East Bengaluru and mixed crowd in Kammanahalli and Banaswadi, says Naveen, who believes the market is only growing. As a social enterprise, Fishchain also works to better nutrition among children and adults from disadvantaged urban communities. They work with orphanages in Coimbatore and with Amrita University in Bengaluru through their Fish for Food programme. The start-up will launch supply of pre-marinated fish this week and plans to go national in six to eight months.
New Indian Express.2017